On a late Saturday night in August 2010, Maria Monserrat Nevarez Tolentino, a 36-year-old woman, was leaving a family party at the Sun River Apartments in South Salt Lake. As she walked through the parking lot around 10 p.m., she was tragically gunned down. She was discovered unconscious, having been shot three times—twice in the upper torso and once in the head. Rushed to a local hospital, she underwent surgery but ultimately succumbed to her injuries.
The vibrant life of Maria Monserrat Nevarez Tolentino was cut short in an act of violence that shattered the evening's festivities.
The investigation into her death quickly pointed to a suspect: her 29-year-old ex-boyfriend, Salvador Alejandro Landin-Castanon. Investigators believe he had been waiting for her in the parking lot. A tip led police to a friend's house in Salt Lake City where Landin-Castanon was found just three hours after the shooting. He was arrested without incident, and authorities also recovered a handgun believed to be the murder weapon. Landin-Castanon was subsequently booked into the Salt Lake County jail on charges of felony homicide and a weapons violation.
In the wake of the tragedy, further details about the relationship between Tolentino and Landin-Castanon emerged. While police referred to him as her ex-boyfriend, her brother clarified that she had always considered them just friends. He stated that they had been "hanging out" for about nine months, but that four months prior to her death, she had asked Landin-Castanon to stop contacting her. This rejection is believed to have been the motive for the fatal shooting. Salvador Alejandro Landin-Castanon eventually pleaded guilty to first-degree felony murder. In exchange for his plea, other charges, including discharge of a firearm with serious bodily injury and possession of a firearm by a restricted person, were dismissed. He was sentenced to a term of 15 years to life in prison for the murder of Maria Monserrat Nevarez-Tolentino. His defense attorney stated that Landin-Castanon was "very, very sorry for the pain he has caused" and that he now understood she "never loved him and that he should have simply walked away."
